Goodbye, My Love
by Will.Hell.Minna.-Sophia Isobel
Summary: An AU: Ron says goodbye to the love of his life. Hermione finds happiness with someone else.


Written for **Dumbledore's Army List of Prompts**

For: **Friday, August 26th**

Prompt: **"Goodbye my love."**

Character: **Ron W. and Hermione G.**

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER!**

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><p><em>"You've called Hermione Granger; please leave a message after the beep."<em>

BEEP.

I sighed. "Hermione, it's me… again. I know you are there, please pick up the phone." I waited for a second and then sighed again. "I miss you, please call me."

I hung up and walked over to my couch, flopping down heavily into the cushions. I wasn't exactly sure _why_ Hermione wasn't talking to me; I had an idea that it had something to do with her new boyfriend. I scowled when I thought of Justin; she could do so much better than him. I knew that he didn't like that Hermione and I were best friends, he didn't trust me and maybe he was right not to.

I had been in love with Hermione for years. Sometimes, when she looked at me I thought I saw love in her eyes, but she never made any attempts to make our relationship anything more than friendship and I was too terrified to bring it up. So I was stuck in this hard place where I couldn't be with anyone else because my heart belonged to her, but I wasn't with her. I was truly alone.

I let out a loud groan and picked up one of the cushions from the couch and clutched it tightly to my chest. I was so angry at Justin for forcing her to stop talking to me. Did it hurt Hermione as much as it hurt me to be apart?

It had been four weeks since Hermione had answered a phone call from me and even then she had been distant and we had only spoken for a moment before she said she had to go. It was so painful to know that I was that disposable to her, that she could let me go without a second thought. Had she ever cared about me the way I cared about her?

And that did it, I felt the tears swell behind my eyes and then spill out over my cheeks. I was crying over a love I had never had, over a woman who had never wanted me. I was pathetic.

It was in that moment that I decided I was not going to allow her to make me feel like this anymore. If she didn't want, or wasn't allowed, to have me in her life anymore then I would respect that and take the step to say goodbye.

I dialled her phone again. The pain in my chest grew as I heard her silky voice on the recorded message and knew that it would be the last time I would ever hear it.

_"You've called Hermione Granger; please leave a message after the beep."_

BEEP.

"Hello 'mione, it's Ron again." I sighed and tried to hold back any quiver from my voice.

"I'm going to assume that your lack of response to the dozens of messages I've left you is because you have no desire to talk to me. So, as much as it saddens me to do so, I'm going to say goodbye as I believe that's what you want now." I took a deep breath.

"Please don't think that I'm being overly dramatic or anything like that, this is just purely something that I feel I need to do. I'm not expecting any response to this message… Unless you want to give one… This is purely so I don't look back on my life in twenty years and regret not having closure with you."

Tears were flowing down my cheeks and I paused for a moment, trying to think of what I wanted to say.

"I've never told you this, but now I will… I love you. I've loved you for ten years and even though I know, you don't feel the same… I still feel it, and I always will. So... I want you to know that I wish you nothing but happiness, joy, and love! I hope that you find every single one of your dreams and that you look back from time to time and remember me with a smile, because that's how I will remember you."

I wiped frantically at the tears as they dripped down my face. This was much harder than I had expected it to be – how do you say goodbye to someone who was such an ingrained part of yourself?

"I'll think of you often and continue to love you for every moment of forever. Goodbye," I whispered.

I held the phone away from my face and stared at it as I hit the 'end call' button and placed the phone down on the coffee table in front of me. I let the tears come now. Each time I wiped a tear from my cheek I tried to imagine that it held a tiny piece of my love for Hermione within it and that if I cried enough I would be able to wash the feelings away.

I lay on the couch, curled in a blanket with the TV on something that I wasn't even paying attention to as I gazed around the room. I had cried all my tears out and was now feeling quite numb. As I looked around I saw how much she was everywhere around me. There were pictures of us as teenagers, pictures of us together in college and more recent ones on our vacation to California last year.

I glanced at the DVD player and remembered how I had laughed at her when she was tangled in the cords as she had tried to hook it up for me. I looked at the barker lounger and remembered the times we had spent curled up on it together as we watched a movie.

Tears dripped down my cheeks again as I mentally wiped my memories from the items around the room.

"Goodbye, my love," I whispered.

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><p><strong>AN: Read and Review, Constructive Criticisms are very much welcomed. ^_^**


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